Sustainability Efforts Gain Leadership Support

Most state and local governments have sustainability directors, many use energy monitoring technology.

Tough economic times over the past few years didn’t stop states and localities from appointing sustainability directors and deploying new technology to monitor energy consumption, according to a new survey of senior policymakers and managers.

More than half of the respondents to a recent Government Technology survey said their jurisdictions have appointed someone to lead sustainability efforts. Twenty percent of respondents said they have created dashboards and metrics to monitor energy consumption in government buildings, and another 16 percent said they are considering such deployments.

The results are based on responses from 113 members of the Governing Exchange, an online community of government executives. The new survey findings track with an analysis of 2012 State of the State addresses released April 11 by the National Governor’s Association. More than 20 governors talked about energy priorities, according to the NGA, and nearly 20 mentioned environmental goals.